New York City Unveils an App to Track Trains

12/28/2012 2:50PM

America's largest subway system launched a smartphone application that will reveal train-arrival times on seven of the city's 24 lines-a leap forward for a service that has lagged behind its peers both at home and abroad in adopting new technologies. WSJ Greater New York reporter Ted Mann has the scoop.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... the the ... welcome to the New Saab on Jethro go ... to his destiny to talk about the latest app on your I phone device ... is a subway happen which will tell you is when you were to New York City subway train is going to ... do when you're enjoying a stock ... is a stupid in the hands of a Wall Street Journal What is the sap and I inquiries and today is or ... is Ardi out aam and this is an app that will affect the subway riders on seven of the routes and in York City subway system of twenty four total ... aam and what will show use information is Ardi appearing on countdown clocks on those lines which means the number of minutes until the next number to three train arrives at the station ... distinctive given there's no subway services or cell service ... within the subway is the study of aspect uses that to get more face more sense if you're ... not have the last cup of coffee before going in the shadows cast into exactly for now until the the subways are wired for sell signals and when white Fiat which is not expected to be completed for a few years this is an above ground convenience ... but it is a major leap forward for the MTA their other ... transit agencies around the country in and around the world the party develop systems that are like this ... but New York as an older signal system that they have to keep running and so that's when the reasons is limited for now ... on to that of roughly a third of the subway system where they have a more modern ... signal ... capability that can send this information out to clocks an hour to smartphones but this is the main landmark in that it is is the largest most complicated subway system in the United States yet and are forever sewer system's little easier to navigate that don't have those ... in Europe to successfully can potentially see ... other cities take a blueprint for the time I think it really is going the other way on and that's in part because some of these other systems were built later and their signal systems and that's where essentially the information out where each train is ... that's coming back to a central location in Washington on sentences go ... here was built before that technology existed in decades and decades before hand ... ALM so really were catching up in one respect but it is in terms of the number of riders a huge step forward because there's so many more were riding transit systems in the bow wow this is wonderful like most things in your doesn't come without cost and all this to complain about ... the two dollars and higher and rising ... a subway ticket to weaken the gazes what's the costs of this and ... that a potential down the road to impact you might use ... well the app is free and they would tell you that this is something that is being developed within the available resources of what the MTA has now course their schedule to raise fares and starting in the spring again two years from now ... aam but the greater cost will come later if ... the system is can it continue to improve on in ways that will broaden technology like this to cover the entire route map of the MTS the MTA's subway system ... and that means essentially finding new money for capital investment in this old infrastructure and some of that is more than eighty or so and and this is that they have the mother's second Avenue subway with the subways themselves ... they're going through a lot of major changes here ... across the lines and they're just as the SEC is ... catching up with a wee seen other major cities ... that's right the aam and the scale of it is so much different in New York that that just keeping the subways running and sometimes with this very date equipment is such a huge job and so expensive ... that there's almost nothing to compare it to him that they would argue there is nothing to compare to in the United States ... aam at the same time they don't wanna be left out of these other conveniences that you can now use in sentences go in use in Boston and so for about forty percent of the writers they can now use those on on seventh on seniors ... Festival thank you so much now the new Orkut sources on is what is going ... to learn a little more patient